Panic Button  (1984 - First Star)
Platform: Commodore 64
Gametype: Undefined
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An original game, Panic Button involved one working on a multi-level manufacturing line, trying to keep up orders by assembling various products. The parts drop out of 3 chutes on the top left of the playfield, and you can run all over the place to pick up the 3 different parts of the product, and you have to assemble them in order (for example, a robot must have it's feet on the bottom, torso in the middle, and head on the top). The pieces come out of the first conveyor belt in random order, and you can only carry one piece at a time. If you accidentally assemble a product in the wrong order, it becomes useless, so you have to be careful where you drop the pieces. There is also a Panic Button (hence the game name) in the upper right corner that you can hit that stops the conveyor belts temporarily.

For each level, you have to make a specific amount of the product you are creating within a time limit of 2 minutes, and each successive level gets faster and faster (and you also have to build more and more). Also, since the 3 conveyor belts are staggered, and pieces will drop on their own between them, you have to be careful watching them as they get near a drop point, as they could fall on pieces you have already constructed and potentially screw that particular product up. On later levels, the bad products start bouncing around as well, interfering with your manoeuvring.


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(From GTW64):



1984 First Star

Status: Preview, Findability: 5/5
Coding: Paul Kanevsky
Graphics: Paul Kanevsky
Sound: Unknown


First Star are famous for some fantastic C64 games, such as Spy
 VS Spy 1,2,3 and Boulderdash… and along with these fantastic titles there seems to be a few which got away.

One such was Panic Button from 1984, where you control a factory worker who has to construct small houses together using
 parts from the conveyor belt. Not as easy as it sounds, with a
 huge amount of parts crazily getting sent along the conveyor belts at one time. You have to be quick and get so many houses
 built before the time runs out.

Strangely although completed, First Star never released the game, and we are yet to find out why we are having to look at it via GTW.

It is a game typical of 1984, with simplistic graphics, but the great First Star trademark playability. It is basically a cross
 of Toy Bizzare and Night Shift in once sense, and would have
 maybe been seen as the other game’s inspiration had it been released. So how has it come about now after over 20 years?…

Well, recently First Star have released a tribute CD to celebrate all their releases, and they have put all their back catalogue onto the CD for people to play and enjoy.

So a lost game has at last managed to sneak out, and finally
 people can play a title they may not have ever known about until now.

It’s a nice piece of nostalgic software, and well worth 5 minutes
 of your time…

Case closed…




http://www.gamesthatwerent.com/gtw64/panic-button/
